City of London Private Cinema
Private Cinema for a Luxury Residential Development in the City of London
Located beneath a prestigious residential development near St Paul’s in the City of London, this private cinema was created as a shared amenity for the building’s residents. The space forms part of the leisure facilities of the development and was designed to deliver a true cinematic experience within a contemporary architectural setting.
Our client for the project was the main contractor responsible for delivering the wider scheme. They approached us to design and install a cinema that would provide a memorable feature for residents while remaining commercially viable within the constraints of a major construction programme.
Despite entering the project relatively late in the process, we were able to develop a design that balanced performance, reliability and cost discipline — ultimately delivering the cinema for approximately half the cost of competing proposals.
A Cinema Designed for Residents
The room was conceived as a communal cinema capable of hosting film screenings, sporting events and private gatherings for residents.
Four tiers of seating provide clear sightlines across the space, accommodating up to twenty viewers while maintaining a relaxed lounge-style environment. Generous seating and carefully considered spacing ensure that the room feels comfortable rather than densely packed.
Deep red acoustic wall panelling creates a warm cinematic atmosphere, while the metallic blue carpet and contrasting cushions introduce colour and visual texture throughout the space.
Engineered for Large-Screen Impact
At the heart of the cinema is a large-format projection system illuminating a 200-inch acoustically transparent screen. This scale allows viewers across all seating rows to experience film and television with genuine theatrical presence.
The front soundstage sits behind the screen, allowing dialogue and on-screen action to originate from the correct position within the image. Surround speakers are concealed behind acoustically transparent fabric wall panels, ensuring that the technology remains visually discreet.
Four in-wall subwoofers provide powerful and evenly distributed low-frequency performance across the entire seating area, creating the dynamic impact expected from a cinema of this scale.
Acoustic Design
To ensure the room performed consistently across multiple seating rows, the cinema was acoustically modelled to achieve controlled reverberation times and balanced sound distribution.
Absorptive treatments were integrated behind the fabric wall system, while deep pile carpeting was specified to reduce reflections within the room.
Extensive acoustic insulation was incorporated into the structure of the cinema to minimise sound transmission to other areas of the building — a critical requirement within multi-dwelling residential developments.
Integrated Control
All audio-visual and lighting functions are managed through a central control system with both touchscreen and handheld interfaces.
This allows residents to start films, adjust lighting scenes and operate the cinema intuitively, ensuring the room remains easy to use for both organised screenings and informal gatherings.
Ceiling downlights are programmed across multiple scenes, allowing the space to transition smoothly from social use to full cinematic mode.
Part of an Award-Winning Development
The completed cinema forms part of a residential scheme that received significant industry recognition, including:
Winner – Housing Design Awards 2019 (Best Completed Project)
Shortlisted – New London Housing Awards 2019
Shortlisted – Resi Awards 2019 – Development of the Year
Delivered on time and within budget, the cinema has become a distinctive feature of the development’s resident amenities and contributed to the overall quality of the scheme.
